Multi-Tenant Nurse Call System with Shared Workflows

1. A method of processing an event message by a multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, comprising: a) configuring, via an event processor, the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system to select and process a workflow based upon a type of event message received and based upon an identity of a clinical entity group that generated the event message by: i) assigning, by an individual, a unique identity to each one of a plurality of clinical entity groups, wherein each one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups consists of one or more hospital specialty units, signaling devices, and messaging devices; ii) assigning a physical location to one or more of the plurality of clinical entity groups; iii) assigning an identity to each one of a plurality of medical devices comprising patient monitoring devices and associating each of the medical devices with different ones of the plurality of clinical entity groups; and iv) assigning a unique identity to each one of a plurality of workflows, wherein each instance of the plurality of the workflows is comprised of one or more ordered steps stored in a database system associated with the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, and each one of the plurality of the workflows is selected for processing by the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system based upon an event message type generated by any one of the medical devices assigned to one of the plurality of clinical entity groups, and based upon an identity of the clinical entity group to which the medical device is assigned; b) receiving at the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, via a communication network, a first event message from one of the medical devices; c) parsing, via the event processor, the first event message for an event message type and medical device identity information, and determining, via a logic, that the first event message is of a first type and was generated by a medical device associated with a first one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups; d) receiving at the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system a second event message; e) parsing, via the event processor, the second event message for an event message type and medical device identity information, and automatically determining, via the logic, that the second event message is of the first type and was generated by a medical device associated with a second one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups; f) selecting a first workflow to be processed for the first clinical entity group, and selecting a second workflow that is different than the first workflow to be processed for the second clinical entity group, each workflow being selected based upon both the event message type and an identity of the clinical entity group that generated the event message, and at least one of the selected workflows having a suspend step, wherein one or more of the first workflow and second workflow result in one or more of activating a visual or audio alert at a console and transmitting a message to the one or more messaging devices associated with a staff member associated with one or more of the workflow's clinical entity groups; g) starting and running, by the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, the first and the second workflows until the system determines that a next step to be processed in the at least one of the workflows is a suspend step, immediately pausing the processing of the at least one workflow at the suspend step until at least one additional instance of the first type of event message is received, then immediately continuing to process the at least one of the workflows having the suspend step subsequent to receiving the at least one additional event message of the first type; h) assigning the first workflow for the first clinical entity group to a first staff member tracked by a first wireless location tracking device when the first staff member is within a predetermined proximity to the physical location of a bed associated with the medical device that generated the first event message, where the bed and the medical device are each members of the first clinical entity group; and i) terminating at least one of the workflows during the suspend step if another one or more instances of the event message of the first type are not received prior to a selected, maximum period of time elapsing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the workflows is configured to pause at the suspend step for up to a selected, maximum period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the at least one of the workflows having two or more suspend steps, and a selected number of subsequent events of the first type can be the same for each suspend step, or can be different for some or all of the suspend steps.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more hospital specialty units are related by either one or both of a geographic position and the type of care provided.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of event message comprises information associated with a patient, a patient bed or an individual staff member assigned to the first or the second clinical entity group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information associated with the patient comprises nurse call button information, patient bed status information, physiological information associated with the patient, or patient location information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each clinical entity group associated with the one or more specialty units in a healthcare facility is located in a contiguous area or non-contiguous areas in the healthcare facility, or is dispersed across multiple facilities in different geographic locations.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the at least first one of the plurality of workflows is configured to be shared with any two or more of the plurality of the clinical entity groups based upon the workflow configuration and a current assignment of a staff member to one of the clinical entity groups or based upon a current location of a staff member that coincides with one of the clinical entity groups.

9. A method of processing an event message by a multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, comprising: a) configuring the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system to select and process a workflow based upon a type of event message received and based upon an identity of a clinical entity group that generated the event message by: i) assigning, by an individual, a unique identity to each one of a plurality of clinical entity groups, wherein each one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups consists of one or more hospital specialty units, signaling devices, and messaging devices; ii) assigning an identity to each one of a plurality of medical devices comprising patient monitoring devices and associating each of the medical devices with different ones of the plurality of clinical entity groups; and iii) assigning a unique identity to each one of a plurality of workflows, wherein each instance of the plurality of the workflows is comprised of one or more ordered steps stored in a database system associated with the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, and each one of the plurality of the workflows is selected for processing by the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system based upon an event message type, generated by any one of the medical devices assigned to one of the plurality of clinical entity groups, and based upon an identity of the tenant to which the medical device is assigned; b) receiving at the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, via a communication network, a first event message; c) parsing, via an event processor, the first event message for an event message type and medical device identity information, and determining, via a logic, that the first event message is of a first type and was generated by a first one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups, and receiving at the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system a second event message; d) parsing, via the event processor, the second event message for an event message type and medical device identity information, and determining, via the logic, that the second event message is of the first type and was generated by a second one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups; e) selecting a first workflow to be processed for the first clinical entity group and selecting a second workflow, that is different from the first workflow, to be processed for the second clinical entity group, each workflow being selected based upon both the event message type and an identity of the clinical entity group that generated the event message, wherein one or more of the first workflow and second workflow result in one or more of activating a visual or audio alert at a console and transmitting a message to the one or more messaging devices associated with a staff member associated with one or more of the workflow's clinical entity groups; f) starting and running, by the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, the first and the second workflows until it determines that a selected number of subsequent event messages of a same type as the first and second event messages are not received from one or the other of the first or second clinical entity groups, and immediately terminating the workflow being processed for the clinical entity group from which subsequent event messages of the first type are not received; g) assigning a physical location to one or more of the plurality of clinical entity groups and assigning the first workflow for the first clinical entity group to a first staff member tracked by a first wireless location tracking device when the first staff member is within a predetermined proximity to the physical location of a bed associated with the medical device that generated the first event message, where the bed and the medical device are each members of the first clinical entity group; and h) terminating at least one of the workflows during a suspend step if another one or more instances of the event message of the first type are not received prior to a selected, maximum period of time elapsing, wherein the plurality of medical devices comprises a vital statistic monitoring device and a non-vital statistic monitoring device, and the vital statistic monitoring device generates an event message having a high-priority characteristic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a background process running on the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system tracks the number of subsequent event messages of the first type that are received after the first and the second workflows are started.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first type of event message comprises information associated with a patient, a patient bed or an individual staff member assigned to the first or the second clinical entity group.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the information associated with the patient comprises nurse call button information, patient bed status information, physiological information associated with the patient, or patient location information.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more hospital specialty units comprising the clinical entity group are related by either one or both of a geographic position and the type of care provided.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein each clinical entity group associated with the one or more specialty units in a healthcare facility is located in a contiguous area or non-contiguous areas in the healthcare facility, or is dispersed across multiple facilities in different geographic locations.

15. A system forprocessing machine readable event messages, comprising: a) a plurality of uniquely identified clinical entity groups in communication with a network, wherein each one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups consists of one or more hospital specialty units, signaling devices, and messaging devices; b) a multi-clinical entity group nurse call system connected to the network comprising: a computational device; i) a display device; and ii) a store of clinical entity group related information maintained in a database system associated with and accessible by the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system; wherein the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system receives, via a communication network, a first event message, parses, via an event processor, the first event message for an event message type, and determines, via a logic, that the first event message is of a first type and was generated by a medical device comprising patient monitoring devices and associated with a first one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups, and receives, at the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system, a second event message, parses, via the event processor, the second event message for an event message type, and determines, via a logic, that the second event message is of the first type and was generated by a medical device comprising patient monitoring devices and associated with a second one of the plurality of the clinical entity groups; and wherein the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system selects a first workflow to be processed for the first clinical entity groups, and selects a second workflow, that is different than the first workflow, to be processed for the second clinical entity groups, each workflow being selected based upon both the event message type and an identity of the clinical entity groups that generated the event message, and at least one of the selected workflows having a suspend-step; wherein the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system assigns a physical location to one or more of the plurality of clinical entity groups and the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system assigns the first workflow for the first clinical entity groups to a first staff member tracked by a first wireless location tracking device when the first staff member is within a predetermined proximity to the physical location of the first clinical entity groups; and wherein the multi-clinical entity group nurse call system starts and runs the first and the second workflows until it determines that, for at least one of the first and second workflows, a next step to be processed is a suspend step, immediately pauses the processing of the at least one workflow at the suspend step until at least one additional instance of the first type of event message is received, and immediately continues to process the at least one of the workflows having the suspend step subsequent to receiving the at least one additional event message of the first type, and terminates at least one of the workflows during the suspend step if another one or more instances of the event message of the first type are not received prior to a selected, maximum period of time elapsing, wherein one or more of the first workflow and second workflow result in one or more of activating a visual or audio alert at a console and transmitting a message to the one or more messaging devices associated with a staff member associated with one or more of the workflow's clinical entity groups.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one of the workflows is configured to pause at the suspend step for up to a selected, maximum period of time.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising the at least one of the workflows having two or more suspend steps, and a selected number of subsequent events of the first type can be the same for each suspend step, or can be different for some or all of the suspend steps.